1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a program, method and apparatus for modeling workflows each representing a flow of work, and more particularly to a program, method, and apparatus for automatically modeling workflows based on the operational state of computer systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent years, as more data is processed by using computers, more business activities require computer systems. For example, an enterprise that sells commodities to customers uses computer systems for management of customer information, inventory management, order management, etc. As flows of work (hereinafter, referred to as workflows) using computer systems are complicated, workflow models are configured to clearly show workflows. The workflow models are ones that abstractly describe workflows for easy understanding, so that business managers and system administrators can intuitively confirm the workflows. In many cases, such workflow models are configured as part of design information when a computer system is to be installed.
By the way, workflow models configured when a computer system is installed need to be re-configured later where appropriate because workflows vary with time in many cases. Therefore, a system administrator needs to grasp the current workflows in order to determine whether the computer system is suitable for the current business activities. In addition, a business manager needs to grasp the current workflows in order to review the business activities or consider the reconstruction of the computer system. However, workflow modeling requires a lot of efforts. In general, the workflows are modeled by the system administer asking workers about their work activities by means of questionnaire or discussions. Therefore, it may be impossible to model workflows in a short time.
Recent years, attentions are paid to a technique of automatically modeling workflows by analyzing the actual operational state of computer systems. One of such techniques is that information such as the updated contents of data and the operational inputs of workers is acquired and analyzed to detect an order relation among a series of processes in computer systems, and then workflow models are configured (for example, refer to W. M. P van der Aalst and five more, “Workflow Mining: A Survey of Issues and Approaches”, [online], [searched on Nov. 8, 2006], the Internet <URL: http://is.tm.tue.nl/research/processmining/papers/wf-min-surv.pdf>). This can greatly reduce a time required for modeling workflows.
However, the technique taught in the document “Workflow Mining: A Survey of Issues and Approaches” has a drawback that this technique is presented for providing typical workflows that frequently occur and does not deal with exceptional workflows that occur less frequently.
More specifically, this technique eliminates flows that occur less frequently, as noise from flows each connecting two successive processes. This prevents configured workflow models from becoming too complicated and user-unfriendly.
However, such exceptional workflows may be useful information for reviewing business activities and considering the reconstruction of computer systems. For example, if there is a workflow which occurs less frequently but is undesirable for operating the computer systems, the computer systems may need to be re-designed so that this workflow does not occur. This means that such exceptional workflows need to be grasped where appropriate.